


You Make My Lips Turn Blue

by ZoeTheNormalBeing



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AKA if you don't want spoilers don't read past this point, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hanahaki Disease, Hypothemos, I don't know what else to tag, Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Keith Loves Lance (Voltron), M/M, Near Death Experiences, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Not that that's actually a tag but..., So..., Unrequited Love, but not really, happy valentine's day, spoilers in the tags, you'll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:00:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29443005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZoeTheNormalBeing/pseuds/ZoeTheNormalBeing
Summary: As Keith leaves the room, he slowly starts to jog before turning it into a sprint to his room. Like maybe he can leave his realizations behind and remain in the world of pleasant cluelessness.Because now?Now Keith realizes that he loves Lance.And that he's susceptible to Hypothemos.☆☆☆Or, Keith has a disease similar to Hanahaki, but thankfully isn't a death sentence.It can still kill him, though, and thus navigating with this disease is a big challenge.Will he survive, or will the cold consume him?
Relationships: Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 91





	You Make My Lips Turn Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's day, y'all! 
> 
> This has been finished for a little while but I wasn't too proud of it so I decided to fix it up a bit for Valentine's Day. I'm still not _really_ happy with it, but it's better than it was the other day. 
> 
> This is... a... uh... remix? Of Hanahaki. It is caused by the same thing, and is fatal, however the actual symptoms are different and this one isn't an automatic death sentence. 
> 
> It'll be explained better later on, so if you want to use it in a fic of your own, go ahead! I just liked this idea... like... a lot, lol. 
> 
> Also. Any scientific stuff in here is dubious factual information. Please don't automatically believe everything in this fic and do your own research to find accurate information. 
> 
> This is not a textbook.

Cold.

That's all Keith has felt since he journeyed into this infinite plane of nothingless.

Only one thing seems to make him warm.

And it's the brightest boy in the universe.

☆☆☆

Keith, at first, was confused.

Granted, Keith knows his jacket wasn't built for the cold, and instead for the hot desert sun, but no one else seems to be cold.

In this limitless abyss, it makes sense to be cold. Space is famous for that - freezing people the moment they dare step out into it's dangerous plane of existence. 

But the castle is a high-tech space-ship, and again, no one else is cold.

So why is Keith the only one that shivers in the night?

Why is he the only one that is internally begging for the heat to be turned up?

Just… why is he the only one that's cold?

☆☆☆

He starts to pick up the tips the universe oh-so-helpfully set out for him over time.

The other paladins complain of it being too hot, while Keith is afraid his blood will become frozen at any moment. While Keith is afraid that his lips will turn a purple-blue.

When they go onto an ice planet, he's the only one that can go without a jacket.

This cold - it's all consuming. It's like burning in hell, but instead it's the North Pole. But, over all, this cold makes him feel alone.

The freezing chills of the night makes him feel like no one cares enough to ask if he's okay, to offer the heat of their touch.

The ice in his veins in the common rooms make him feel invisible. Keith's a ghost, only leaving a chill in his path, but just like the proof is shown in the documentaries he used to watch on Earth, no one notices him. They all believe he's some myth that's conjured in the nights to spook kids during camping trips.

That's all he is.

An intimidation trick.

☆☆☆

It's a normal day when he finally realizes what's going on, and Keith feels like an idiot for not realizing it sooner.

Keith is slouching upon the couch in the 'living room' of the castle when Lance strolls in, seemingly ignoring everything else in the world. And when Keith looks at Lance? He can understand the feeling. Looking at Lance makes him feel that no one else exists, that the cold in his bones is a mere setback in life. But the problem is that Lance ignores _everything_. Even Keith.

"Yo," Lance says, crashing down to the couch-thing and tearing Keith from his frozen brain. "Wassup, Mullet-Head?"

Keith narrows his eyes. 

"Why are you talking like that?" Keith asks, hoping to not prolong the torture that is being nearby Lance when he's in a mood like this.

"'Cause," Lance smirks, giving a shrug. "Figured I'd use the lingo from the people you stole your hair from."

Keith scowls, somehow turning colder, as in instead of a sun-kissed wave, Lance is the middle waters in the deep sea. The area between the warmth of the sun and the burning of the underwater volcanoes. 

But then Lance playfully slaps his shoulder and light breaks way.

Suddenly Lance isn't even an ocean, but the sun itself - providing warmth in a way that seems impossible. 

And-

Oh.

Keith loses his scowl and tears himself from Lance.

Lance stares at Keith in shock and confusion for a moment before Keith turns and simply walks out at as normal of a pace as he can manage.

As Keith leaves the room, he slowly starts to jog before turning it into a sprint to his room. Like maybe he can leave his realizations behind and remain in the world of pleasant cluelessness. 

Because now?

Now Keith realizes that he loves Lance.

And that he's susceptible to Hypothemos.

☆☆☆

Hypothemos is a rare but well-known disease that first started showing up in the Twenty-Second Century. It's a disease borne of unrequited love, and is actually similar to some sort of mythology well known within the Twenty-First century as Hanahaki.

Hanahaki and Hypothemos are both fatal and only have one natural cure - the one they love loving them back.

☆☆☆

After this realization, Keith feels trapped.

This isn't something he can fight with a sword or run from on the battlefield, this is something he has to deal with.

But, at least, it's easier to handle the cold now that he knows the reason. 

So now Keith is silent. He no longer speaks up about the cold, or questions why everyone else is complaining of the heat. He never did it all that often anyway, so him suddenly stopping isn’t all that big of a deal.

Luckily, even after Keith’s weird reaction to Lance’s touch last time, Lance hasn’t stopped the playful touches he does with everyone. Now, the only thing Keith has to do is ignore the warmth he brings.

Yeah, that doesn’t work very well.

When Lance gives him a high-five after training about two weeks later, he jumps and awkwardly stands frozen for a moment before snapping his hand to his side and looking downwards in a panic to hide his wide eyes, thus missing the confused look Lance gives him.

When Lance attempts to give him a celebratory half-hug after a mission well done another few weeks later, Keith freezes again.

It’s like a shock to his body, which makes sense. After all, when you’re deprived of something for so long and are suddenly exposed to it, you’re bound to, at the very least, startle. 

But, it seems that third time's the charm because Lance moves to pat him on the back a few weeks later before stopping half-way and taking his hand back, giving an awkward apologetic smile instead before walking towards the kitchen.

At this point, Keith knows he’s fucked. 

Asking for touch is a sure-fire sign of Hypothemos, and the last thing Keith needs on top of this saving-the-world drama is _romantic_ drama, so Keith isn’t gonna be saved that way. Touching people consistently for basically no reason is also a major warning alarm, but non-consistent can make sense.

But… y’know, he’s _Keith_. That’s not gonna work.

So Keith’s only hope is a blue moon where Lance touches him again and Keith will pray to every goddamned deity he knows that he _won’t flinch_.

☆☆☆

Lance finally touches him again a month later and holy shit, those deities listened because Keith didn’t flinch!

...but Lance did.

“Shit, sorry, man,” Lance says, removing his arm from his shoulders.

Keith scrunches his face up in confusion, still ecstatic at the remaining remnants of heat but trying to bury it in the dry ice trapping his soul, before speaking.

“Why are you sorry?” Keith asks.

“Well, you’re obviously opposed to touch or whatever, so-”

“What?” Keith questions. I mean, it makes sense, but still! He could’ve asked. “No, I’m not.” 

Lance gives him an incredulous look and Keith realizes he needs an excuse. 

“I’m, um…” Yeah, nice job moron, just stutter because that will help- “I’m just not used to touch.” Bingo!

Lance’s face immediately smoothes over with understanding.

“Well, you did stay in a shack, alone, for an entire year, so.” Lance says with a smirk, before returning his arm to its previous position.

The warmth seeps through his shirt, and finally, Keith's prolonged chill is now but a warmed flower in a meadow. But Keith knows that meadow will freeze over soon, as the harsh winter ices over his being again. 

For now, though, Keith enjoys the most warmth he's gotten since Sendak's invasion of the castle.

☆☆☆

After Keith's (in his opinion) wonderfully crafted excuse, Lance starts to touch Keith far more than he did before - basically, as much as he touches everyone else.

Lance is a touchy person by nature, if it wasn't obvious in the way he drapes himself across Hunk's lap, or put his legs on Pidge's shoulders when they work on the floor in front of the couch (which they always comment on, but they never push him away which is weird to Keith but whatever). The only people Lance _doesn't_ touch constantly are Shiro (probably because he can be intimidating and has PTSD with a highly dangerous robotic arm) and Coran (Coran is a weird person to grab a hold of, but Keith has passed by rooms where Lance and Coran are reminiscing of their home planets while leaning on each other). He even touches Allura occasionally when she finally takes a break. Keith knows Lance would touch her constantly if he could, because honestly Lance couldn't be more obvious about his crush on Allura.

A cold spike makes it way through Keith's spine.

Right. Hypothemos. Probably shouldn't think about that. Hell, Keith should stop thinking about Lance in general, it's causing him to freeze up quicker.

Keith feels something touch his shoulder - did he run into a wall or something? He turns around to see Pidge looking at him with shocked concern.

"Uh, Pidge?" Keith questions, attempting to get Pidge out of their stunned haze.

It's successful, and Pidge shakes their head to snap out of it, but refuses to lower their hand - oh, that's probably what touched him.

"Keith," Pidge says with far more infliction and concern than Keith thought was possible for them, "You're _freezing_ ," They finish, looking up towards Keith's face, probably looking for an explanation.

Keith shrugs.

"I suppose I'm a little cold." He says, trying to play it off. Keith is not willing to be caught, he's working on it, has been getting better at adapting to Hypothemos -

Pidge attempts to touch his shoulder again, but Keith immediately flinches away. Pidge narrows their eyes.

"Keith." They say, heavy warning in their voice. "You're more than a 'little cold'. I can feel how low your temperature is when I'm not even touching you." They finally put their hand down. "We should probably get you to a healing pod or something, this can't be normal -"

It's at that moment Lance walks through the hallway, patting Keith's back and ruffling Pidge's hair before picking up the chilled atmosphere. 

"Uh, what's going on over here?" Lance asks with a nervous smile on his face.

"Keith is really co-" Pidge starts before Keith slams his hand over their mouth, causing them to stop talking and widen their eyes in confusion.

"Nothing. Everything's fine."

Lance slowly walks backwards down the hall, doubt curling his brow. 

"Yeah, I doubt that, but whatever. I'm getting outta here before I witness Pidge murdering you for shutting her up," Lance says, before turning and running.

Once Lance's footsteps disappear into the depths of the castle, Keith removes his hand from Pidge's mouth.

"What the hell-!" Pidge yells out, before Keith puts his index finger on his lips, sending them the universal sign for 'please stop making sound'.

Pidge reluctantly stops, waiting for an explanation.

Keith stands there for a moment, planning out his words as Pidge starts to tap their foot in impatience. 

Keith knows he can't hide what's going on right now… from Pidge. If he can keep them quiet then Lance never has to know. Giving them less information, Keith decides, will lower his chances of getting caught. So, first act of action:

"What?" Keith finally asks, whispering, and Pidge gives him a really weird look before voicing their thoughts - luckily also whispering.

"Five seconds ago you were freezing, but suddenly you're a normal temperature. Explain."

"Pidge," Keith says darkly, "All I have to say is that I know you're smart enough to figure this out, but if you tell _anybody_ ," He continues, lowering so his face is right in front of Pidge while tapping their chest with every word. "They. Won't. Find. Your. Body."

With that, Keith spins on his heel and disappears like a ghost, leaving a Pidge that is slowly figuring out his biggest secret.

☆☆☆

Later that day, Keith's sitting in a circle of blankets, despite knowing very well they will do nothing, on his bed, in the dark. He can slowly feel the cold seep in, but he's gotten used to it by now. It's annoying, but he can handle it. He's stronger than a stupid disease.

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

"Keith?" Says a tremulous voice from outside his door.

Keith sighs. He was expecting it, but he supposes a tiny part of him wished that this wasn't going to happen.

"Come in," Keith says, resigning himself to his fate. 

A stream of light enters the room, only interrupted by the shadow of someone short in stature. 

The door closes behind them, and -

"Jesus christ," Pidge says. "Why the fuck is it so dark in here?" Then they suddenly stop. "And cold. Keith, the fuck?"

"Why are you here?" Keith asks, ignoring their previous bombardment of questions.

They turn, and Keith can see their face has softened from its normal look thanks to his Galran genes. Keith can recognize it as pity, something he's sick of but can't prevent.

Pidge's expression suddenly morphs into something more solemn before opening their mouth.

"Can I sit on your bed?"

Keith sighs and looks down. 

"Sure. Whatever."

Keith feels the bed move next to him, and when he looks to his right, Pidge is staring straight forward.

"You have Hypothemos," They say. It isn't a question, just a confirmation. 

Keith swallows.

"Yes."

"For Lance."

"Somehow."

Pidge turns to him, legs crossed and socked feet moving antsily. That's one thing Pidge and Lance have in common - neither can stay still. Lance exerts his energy through speaking, talking with his hands, while Pidge takes it out by typing twenty-four seven. But Pidge doesn't have their computer right now, probably because they felt it would break the serious atmosphere, so it's causing them to exert it in other ways. After a few moments, Pidge starts tapping their fingers on their legs while looking around the pitch-black room, trying to gather their thoughts.

"I don't know much about Hypothemos," They say as a single statement.

"And?" Keith asks.

"Can you tell me more about it?" They ask, softly. 

Keith lowers his head with a sigh.

"The brief jist of it is that I'm cold for all of eternity until the one I love… being Lance, in this case, touches me. Temperatures otherwise won't affect me."

"Since when?" They ask.

Keith fully turns to them before leaning against his headboard, surrendering himself to the questioning. 

"Probably since Sendak invaded the castle."

"Jesus, Keith," Pidge says with heavy concern.

An awkward air spreads across the room before Pidge breaks the silence.

"Do you think you're gonna survive?"

"Maybe," Keith says. "As long as Lance doesn't find out." At that, Keith sits up straight, trying to look as intimidating as possible even though Pidge can't see him. "That's why you have to promise me Lance won't find out, Pidge. That includes telling anyone else. The more people know, the higher chance someone will slip up."

"I'm assuming when you say don't tell anyone you're alluding to the disease itself and not whom you have it for?"

"Yes, I am. Lance is… unpredictable, with these things, to say the least."

"Do you plan on ever telling him?"

"No," Keith says. "I'm taking this to my grave. As should you."

Pidge nods in grim understanding with a sigh and they sit there until dinner.

☆☆☆

Despite Keith's wishes, Pidge gets a little… _risky_ with the information they've been given.

As in, they start acting as if this is a romantic comedy and Pidge is Keith's wingman. 

When Lance flirts with Allura during dinner about a week after Keith shares his secret, Pidge says:

"Y'know, Allura isn't the only one with pretty eyes on the castle."

The entire table looks at them weird.

"I mean, come on, Keith's eyes are literally purple. You can't tell me that isn't, at the very least, cool."

At that Keith gets alarmed but tries to keep his expression neutral. 

"Pidge," Keith says, just a little deeper than normal. "What the fuck."

"Just sayin'," Pidge says with a smirk and a shrug, and Keith is regretting all of his life choices.

"Uh," Lance says, terribly confused. "Sure, whatever. Anyways, did you see that maneuver I did with Blue earlier-"

Later, Keith gives them a warning in the form of trapping them against the wall with his hand in a dark hallway and reiterating "They won't find your body" with glowing eyes.

Pidge visibly gulps and Keith thinks that it's the end of it.

Yeah, no.

Lunch about five days later has run out of conversation, and the only sound is silverware hitting against bowls before Pidge interrupts the silence as if they just came to a revelation.

"Y'know," They say, feigning the look of 'I totally JUST came up with this idea', "Have any of you realized Keith is literally hot?"

Keith's spoon drops into his goo before he slowly cranes his neck up to glare at Pidge.

"Uh-" Hunk says, confused, before Pidge continues. 

"I mean, he pilots the red lion. His thing is _literally_ heat. His lion spits out fire!"

"Hey," Lance says, offended (maybe? Sometimes he's tough to read), "That means I'm cold!" Lance's eyes light up. "Keith!"

Keith's head snaps over to Lance in confused shock. 

"We should switch lions, cause obviously I'm the hottest one here," Lance says, winking towards Allura.

Keith feels a cold spike through his heart, and Keith looks back to his goo before someone can see he looks dejected.

Pidge, though, is purposely looking for his reaction and sees it.

You would've thought that'd deter them.

Nope. Now there's more determination. 

Which is exactly what Keith needed (NOT).

☆☆☆

"Hey, sweetcheeks," Lance says to a local, who blushes in response and giggles. "May I just say you're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen?" Now the local is starting to laugh _at_ Lance, which quickly causes him to frown in disappointment and confusion as the local turns and runs off to her friends, where they all start to laugh.

Keith really hates seeing him like that, but he knows that getting any closer is risky. 

Pidge, apparently, likes making other people be risky.

"Lance," Pidge calls from beside Keith, and Lance looks at them, obviously expecting some kinda jab at him, but Pidge just waves him over, which sets off all kinds of warning bells in Keith's head but it's too late to escape now.

Lance jogs over to them with a relaxed smirk.

"What's up, Pidgerino?"

They sigh. 

"A., don't call me that, and B., maybe you should practice your flirting."

Lance huffs.

"Oh yeah?" Lance asks in an accusing voice, taking a Keith-esque pose with his arms crossed and his center of weight relying heavily on his left leg. "With who?" Lance says with a smirk, believing he's won the fight.

"Keith," Pidge says, bluntly.

"What!?" Lance and Keith cry out in unison.

"Hell no," Lance says, moving his arms to make an 'X'. "In what universe would I _ever_ flirt with _Keith_ , even just for 'practice' or whatever?" Lance rhetorically asks before turning around and heading towards Hunk.

Keith staggers a little while Pidge stares after Lance with a huff.

"Huh," They say, turning towards Keith. "Really thought that was gonna wooork- Keith are you okay? You're really fuckin' pale, dude," Pidge says, with heavy concern before reaching out to steady him and immediately ripping their hand back. "Jesus, you're freezing!"

"Yeah," Keith says, voice like nails on a chalkboard. "I guess I didn't explain my _condition_ well enough for you."

Keith turns to Pidge with a, quite literally, cold glare.

"Rejection makes it worse."

"Woah," Hunk says from across the way before nearly running over to Keith. "You're really pale, man, are you okay?" 

"Yeah, just not feeling well."

"Aw, really?" Hunk asks, reaching with the back of his hand towards Keith's forehead, which Keith obviously backs away from.

Hunk tilts his head in confusion, but quickly lets it pass and continues speaking with Keith, thankfully _not_ trying to check his temperature.

"Do you think you should head back to the castle?"

"No," Keith grits out. "I'm fine."

Hunk looks down to where Keith's arms are crossed before looking back towards Keith's face. 

"You sure?" Hunk asks, before pointing to Keith's arms. "You're shaking, dude."

"Yeah," Keith says, shockingly casual. "I just couldn't train this morning before we got out here so my body is trying to find some kind of outlet for that energy, which currently is shaking, apparently."

Hunk shrugs.

"Okay then, dude. Hope ya feel better," Hunk says, before turning around and heading back towards a confused Lance that keeps glancing between Hunk and Keith. 

Hopefully that's a problem he can deal with later.

"Woah," Pidge said. "I know there's more serious shit going on right now, but you're a seriously good liar. How many times have you lied to me?"

Keith glances towards Pidge before glancing forwards again as they start moving. 

"More than I can count."

"Man, you're even better at lying than me!"

"Yeah," Keith sighs. "But I'm not better than Lance."

Pidge snorts. 

"Are you serious? Lance is an open book, dude." 

Keith looks towards Lance, who's staring right back at him before the darker boy snaps his head back forward.

"Yeah," Keith says, staring at the back of Lance's head with a soft expression. "Sure."

☆☆☆

Thankfully, Lance gave Keith a pat on the shoulder after the diplomatic portions of the mission were done, giving Keith warmth just as he was sure his lips were going to turn blue.

Surprisingly fitting, the color blue. A color that fits Lance so well. Symbolic, isn't it? The very thing killing Keith will turn him blue, the same color of the boy causing the thing that's killing him.

It just seems like a vicious cycle, at this point.

☆☆☆

Keith's sword swings awkwardly towards the bot, something unexpected on both parts. Keith's been attempting to try new tactics in terms of his attack style, but it hasn't turned out so well.

Keith stabs the bot through the chest.

 _'Well scratch that thought,'_ Keith thinks.

A slow clap starts from the doorway and Keith looks towards the blue-eyed boy walking towards him from the other side of the room.

"Well done, Samurai," Lance says with a smirk.

Keith's sure that, if it could, his face would be heating up like crazy right now. But that may be the one good thing about this stupid disease - he can't blush.

"Really interesting trick you did there at the end, buddy," Lance says as he finally reaches Keith's location and stops his clapping and walking. "Where'd you learn it?"

Keith makes his way towards the edge of the clinically white room to where he left a towel and a water bottle. 

"I didn't," Keith says while swiping the towel across his forehead. He takes a sip of water. "Just trying new attack styles and seeing what works."

"Wait," Lance says, after walking to Keiths left, "You mean to tell me you made that up?"

Keith looks at Lance out of the corner of his eye, who's leaning against the wall and looking across the entirety of the training room. Keith caps his water bottle, still holding onto it, and mirrors his position.

"Yup. Thought I could at least try to expand upon my expertise instead of just increasing the skill in what I already know."

Lance looks at him for a moment before opening his mouth.

"Well, if you wanna learn new stuff, and just so you know, I wanna learn new stuff, how about we teach each other how to use our own weapons?" Lance asks with a quirked brow. He pushes off the wall and walks backwards until he's facing Keith and in his field of vision. "That way I'm better at close range combat - and can kick your ass - and you're better at far range combat. What do you say, Mullet?"

Keith furrows his brow.

In theory, it's a good idea. Keith learns new skills that could become vital in life-or-death situations, and gets to hang out with Lance and potentially completely fill up his Hypothemos 'heat bar' or whatever you want to call it.

That's why Keith accepts it.

"Why not?" Keith asks with a shrug, and Lance's smirk grows. 

Keith will find out later exactly 'why not'.

☆☆☆

Keith knocks on Pidge's door, and it automatically opens to a room with a whole lot of sounds that can be filed under the 'mechanical' category.

Keith leans into the room, careful to avoid… whatever all this shit is on Pidge's floor and starts to speak.

"Pidge?" Keith asks, looking at the back of what was probably a person at a desk at one point but is now just a sack of potatoes. 

Pidge's head snaps up and turns to look at Keith with keyboard keys marked onto their forehead. 

Not a sack of potatoes, then.

Pidge adjusts their glasses and sees it's Keith before speaking.

"What do you want?" Pidge says tiredly, rubbing their forehead absent-mindedly.

"I wanted to talk."

Pidge's eyes brighten a little at that. 

"First of all, is it saving-the-world shit or personal drama?"

"Personal," Keith mumbles, looking downwards.

Pidge nods with a glint in their eyes and the shadow of a smirk upon their lips.

"Come in."

Keith carefully steps through the minefield, and just as he can be considered in the boundaries of the room the door slams shut and a soft white noise covers the room. 

Keith whirls around to look at the door before turning back to a gleefully smirking Pidge.

"After our conversation in the hallway, like, a month ago, I realized that just talking there was really dangerous," Pidge explains without prompting. "So, I started working on a locking mechanism that puts white noise outside. It's not the most discreet way of keeping this shit secret," Pidge continues, getting up and making their way to their bed with practiced ease. "But it works," They finish, plopping down on the bed. 

After a moment of silence Pidge raises an eyebrow.

"So are you just going to stand there?"

"Uh," Keith says.

"C'mon, sit on my bed or whatever, dude, just stop looking like a kitten in a horde of horses."

"Can you even call a bunch of horses a 'horde'?" Keith asks as he makes his way to their bed and plops down.

"What, is my sixth grade English teacher here to yell at me?"

Keith snorts, relaxing onto the relatively clear bed. 

"Fair enough."

They lay there for a few more moments before Pidge speaks up.

"So are you going to say what you came here to do or whatever?"

Keith lets out a sigh.

"Right." Keith brushes his bangs out of his face as he starts talking. "Earlier today I agreed to train with Lance so that I can learn how to use a gun and he can learn how to use a sword."

"Well that sounds cool," Pidge says, blandly.

"Problem is that nearly the entire time he was talking about Allura and I'm ninety percent sure my lips are blue."

Pidge snaps their head over to him to quickly check and see that, yes, Keith's lips have a slight blue tint to them.

Pidge immediately jumps up and dashes to the corner before coming back and putting some weird invention in front of Keith's face before it beeps. Pidge pulls the invention towards their face, seemingly reading stats before gasping sharply. 

"Keith, your body temperature is at 88°!" Pidge says with wide eyes.

Keith looks toward them.

"Is that bad?"

"Is that- Keith, the lowest average temperature is like 97°!"

"So it's bad," Keith says, not really reacting.

"Shit," Pidge says, "I'm not an expert of hypothermia but I know at some point you start to have your mental function break down and this does not look good, Keith!"

"Well there's no way in hell I'm asking for a hug or something."

"Why not?!" Pidge screeches out, throwing their arms in the air.

"Because while you might not know much about Hypothemos, Lance is a romantic and probably knows a shit-ton about it. And asking for touch is basically announcing to the world you have Hypothemos, and remember what I said?"

"That Lance will figure it out, yeah. Jeez, how are we supposed to fix this, Keith? This can't go on forever."

"It can and it will," Keith says, very serious.

"Jesus Christ," Pidge says, shaking their head before seemingly coming to a conclusion. "Wait, what if I ask Lance to touch you?"

Keith looks at Pidge for a moment.

"He'd probably laugh in your face."

Pidge face-palms.

"Yep," They say, "I'm an idiot. I forgot Lance is an idiot."

"Lance isn't an idiot, Pidge, he's just not book-smart."

"That contradicts itself."

"No," Keith retaliates, "It doesn't. Lance is people-smart and plan-smart. So while he isn't good at all this tech mumbo-jumbo you got in your room, he's good at diplomacy and making plans that are far more likely to work than anyone else's. He's also gun-smart, I forgot about that. I knew basically nothing about guns before today and you wanna know what? Lance knows so much shit about guns it's shocking."

Pidge stares at Keith for a moment.

"Jesus you are so far gone," Pidge says, shaking their head.

☆☆☆

Later, as he's walking into dinner, Lance bumps into Keith's shoulder and Keith finally is no longer an ice cube.

Both Pidge and Keith sigh in relief at that.

☆☆☆

Everybody is shivering and Keith doesn’t know what to do.

This planet was said to have decent food resources that actually taste good, and everyone jumped at the chance of not having only a limited supply of actual food (goo doesn’t count). Especially once Hunk said he’d probably be able to make something like strawberry ice cream thanks to the fridaberries. 

Everyone really regrets that now.

When Allura warned everyone of the extremely cold gust that was about to come through, the team found shelter in a nearby cave. When that gust actually came by, an avalanche of snow came down.

Because, oh, right, this is a fucking _ice_ planet. Like Kerberos. Everything is covered in snow, but there’s somehow life that could probably survive in space regardless of how cold it is. Cell's way of adapting to the environment is nothing to sneeze at.

But back to right now.

They’re trapped in this goddamned cave and Shiro completely tired himself out trying to dig. At first everyone was digging, but nobody’s stamina can match Keith’s or Shiro’s so most of them stopped a while ago, leaving Keith the only one to get them out of this hell.

Everybody but Keith is huddled for warmth at the far corner of the cave and Lance is fruitlessly trying to start a fire despite the fact that Pidge repeated multiple times that even if Lance got a fire started, it’d immediately be put out due to the low temperature (though Keith isn't quite sure that's correct… hopefully their brain isn't affected by the cold).

Luckily everyone is just a tad too numb to realize that Keith _really_ shouldn’t be able to withstand the temperature as long as he has. And, their communications were spotty at best before, so chances are nobody will even remember how long they were in there.

Y’know, if they can get out.

The snow was somehow iced over, meaning that it’s very slippery and unfortunately strong to the bare hand. Keith started stabbing it with his sword once he was making no progress with his hands alone, and it’s been… sorta working.

“I’m just…” Hunk said, laying on his side. “Gonna take a little nap...:” he continues, muffling a yawn.

Lance starts poking him with a stick, far too blue lips in a tight (possibly frozen?) frown.

“Oh no you don’t, buddy. Don’t you remember boy scouts, like, at all? They always said if you’re really cold and get sleepy, never actually fall asleep.”

“It’ll just be a few minutes,” Hunk mumbles in reply, eyes already closed.

“Nope,” Pidge says, and shocks him with their bayard.

Hunk immediately jumps up, eyes wide.

“What- oh,” Hunk says, seemingly coming to his senses. “I wouldn’t have died!”

“Yes you would’ve,” Everyone says in monotone unison. 

Hunk sighs and looks down.

“Okay, fine, but if anybody else tries to fall asleep, Pidge should shock them. Because I am wide awake now.”

“Probably won’t be for long,” Keith says in response. “The cold will set in again soon and your brain functions will start shutting off shortly, if they haven’t already.”

“How did we get here, again?” Pidge asks aloud.

“Uh,” Lance slurs before blinking a few times, finally giving up on his sticks. “Dunno. Something with like, food?”

“Food,” Hunk says, like it’s some godsend. “I could totally go for some food right now. And some hot cocoa.”

“Yeah,” Pidge says. “We could really use some of that in the castle.”

“Castle?” Lance mumbles. “Like fairytale castle?”

“Uh, no,” Hunk says, “The castle-ship? Ya know, where we’ve been spending the past couple of months?”

“Nope,” Lance says. “Don’t remember anything like that. Are you feeling okay?”

Hunk looks at him in shock.

“Am I feeling okay?” Hunk asks incredulously. “No, are _you_ feeling okay, man?”

“Yeah,” Lance simply replies.

“I wouldn’t try it,” Keith says, getting stuck on a particularly hard chunk of ice. “When I say brain functions, I mean all brain functions. Chances are he has amnesia, but hopefully we can get him in a pod soon enough that it’s only temporary.”

Everyone stays silent for a moment before snow is blowing into the cave and Keith whoops out triumphantly. 

“Yes!” Keith yells out, turning around to his teammates. “We can get out of here now!”

A few of them mumble something incomprehensible but Shiro and Hunk immediately stand up on shaky legs, Hunk getting Pidge to lean on him so they can make it out. Shiro is in worse condition than Hunk but can, thankfully, move. Lance, though, is another story, and he seems to lay there, slightly swaying. Keith sighs out before walking over there and getting Lance to throw his arm over his shoulders and- 

Oh _god_ this is not a good idea, Keith is really warm and it’ll get really suspicious if he’s the only one showing absolutely no symptoms of even slight heat deprivation. Why couldn’t Hunk pick up Lance, dammit?

Everyone makes it out alive and the castle picks them up nearly immediately, Lance mumbling baffled nonsense as they walk through its halls.

Once everyone is in a pod, except Keith, Allura turns to him.

“Keith?” She questions, dragging Keith’s eyes from Lances pod.

“Hm?”

“Do you not need a pod?” She asks, confused.

“Uh-” Keith hesitates. Why is this his life?

“Ah, Princess,” Coran says, cheerfully. “You must’ve forgotten, some Galra have very good heat regulation. Keith must be among them.”

Allura turns back to Keith, giving him a suspicious look before turning back to Coran.

“That must be it, then,” She says. “Thank you, Coran,” She finishes, giving Keith and the pods one last glance before leaving the room.

☆☆☆

Keith should’ve took that stupid cave situation that his secret barely survived as a warning.

“Shit!” Lance cried out, slamming his fist on the glass (maybe? Kinda like… plastic that’s transparent?).

“Uh,” Hunk stuttered before grabbing his bayard and charging up his machine gun. “Get out of the way, Lance!”

“No!” Allura called out in alarm. “Don’t!” She yelled through the comms. “That’s a very dangerous gas, and chances are the door’s unlocked anyways.”

“The Princess is right, I’m afraid,” Coran says, joining in on the conversation. “It will cause most species to pass out in less than a dobash, or human minute. From there, the being will eventually die.”

“What?” Shiro says, eyes wide with alarm but voice deceivingly calm.

“You need to turn that gas off, or Pidge isn’t going to make it.”

Everything seemed to stop.

Keith squinted through the gas, seeing a shadowy figure curled up on the ground on their side, one he knew to be Pidge. So close, yet so far.

“How does that gas even work?” Hunk asks, squinting into the gas as well, probably to try and see Pidge, too.

“It’s overstimulation-” Coran says.

“That’s what she said-” Lance calls out, trying to lighten the mood.

“Lance,” Keith calls out, voice steady. “As much as I appreciate you trying to make light of the situation, this is a timed situation and we need to focus, and unfortunately your jokes will stall us.”

“Uh,” Lance says, “Okie-dokie then, buddy.”

“As I was saying,” Coran finally continues, “It’s a form of overstimulation via heat. It’s a horrible way to go, but strangely it’s a heat-based gas that focuses on destroying nerves until it eventually gets to your brain by basically burning them. That’s actually why it kills _most_ species and not all. Those that are immune to heat or burns will easily walk right through it, and species that don’t have an average nervous system won’t be targeted by it.”

Keith’s heart drops through his feet.

“So,” Keith says, “If theoretically one of us couldn’t feel heat then they’d be able to make it through fine?”

“Yes,” Coran replies.

_Shit._

“Why does that even matter, Keith?” Hunk asks. “It’s not like anybody around here is immune to heat or whatever.”

Keith’s hand slides down the glass before falling limp at his side.

“Really didn’t want to have to do this,” Keith says as the only warning before he opens the door.

“Keith!” Lance calls out. “The fuck are you doing? You’ll die, stupid!”

Keith just steps into the fog, closing the door behind him. He takes a deep breath, finding Pidge’s silhouette before walking over to it.

“What the fuck,” Hunk simply states as the door closes behind Keith, trapping the gas in the room again.

“What happened?” Allura asks. Right, they’re not here.

“Uh,” Shiro says, not sure what to do other than stand there, shocked. “Keith just walked into the room?”

“What!” Allura cries out, not even asking it. “He’s going to die!”

“We know,” Hunk says. “But how could we possibly save both of them if we’d die ourselves?”

“I really hope this isn’t because we told him about Galran thermo-regulation, because that will not save him from this situation.”

Silence fills the room for a moment.

“What if he knows that, but he’s not gonna die anyways?” Lance asks softly, starting to come to a realization.

“Lance,” Shiro says sternly. “As much as your optimism helps in other situations, I really don’t want you to think of the impossible here-”

“No,” Lance says, turning to Shiro, extremely serious. “What if he has Hypothemos?” Lance asks, silencing the group.

Shiro looks from the door to Lance a few times before his eyes widen. 

“Holy shit, Keith has Hypothemos.”

At that moment, Keith bursts through the door, completely unaffected, with an unconscious Pidge in his arms.

“They need a pod, stat,” Keith says as he wordlessly walks past the group that is currently standing in shock.

Everyone turns around after a moment and quickly follows Keith, and Lance catches up to him completely.

“Keith?” Lance asks, carefully.

Keith speeds up his pace.

“This is not the time.”

☆☆☆

Pidge stumbles out of the healing pod, blinking blearily before their eyes look up to see that they’re in Keith’s arms.

“The fuck happened,” They ask in a flat and groggy voice before rubbing their eyes.

Keith backs up and makes sure they can stand, and in the moment it takes Keith to respond after that, Pidge notes the room only contains the two of them.

“Mission went south when we were heading back from the helm. You tripped in a gas room,” He says before seeing Pidge looking around the room. “You came out of the healing pod way earlier than expected. Actually, I was planning on not even being here.”

Pidge turns back to him at that.

“Why not?” They ask. Over the time they’ve spent in space, Keith had slowly warmed up to the team and it was common for everyone to greet someone as they come out of a pod.

“Well,” Keith says, hesitating and not meeting their eyes. “The rest of the team may know I have Hypothemos?” Keith continues, voice taking a questioning lilt near the end.

“What?!” Pidge squawks out in response. “How?”

“Well, the gas room you got stuck in targets your nerves and overstimulates them… via heat. I was the only one that could save you before your brain overloaded or something like that.”

“Man,” Pidge says, “Alien technology is weird. Did you get any samples?”

Keith looks at them incredulously. 

“That’s what you’re worried about?”

“They were probably gonna find out anyway,” They respond.

“No,” Keith says, solemn, “They wouldn’t have. I’m good with this kind of shit. I can handle it.”

They sigh.

“Fine, whatever you want to believe,” They pause for a moment. “You got any food? I’m _starving_.”

☆☆☆

Lance and Hunk walk into the dining room with almost-pancakes to soft chatter between Pidge and Keith.

“Pidge!” Lance cries out before Hunk has time to react. Lance abandons his plate at the edge of the table as he runs toward Pidge before gathering them in a hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

“Yeah, whatever,” They say, rolling their eyes with their cheek squished and glasses askew from the awkward position.

Hunk comes over and scoops both Lance and Pidge into a hug while holding back tears. 

“Aw man,” Hunk says, “You had us so worried! We thought you were gonna die!” 

“Yeah,” Lance says before turning his gaze towards Keith. “You’re lucky Keith saved you.”

Hunk finally releases his death grip before going back to where he abandoned his own plate, right next to Lance’s, before sitting down to the left of Pidge. 

“That gas coulda killed you,” Hunk says, surprisingly stern. “Don’t scare us like that again,” Hunk continues, voice wavering as he holds back more tears.

“I’m fine, Hunk,” Pidge continues while rolling their eyes, but the small smile gives away how much they appreciate the concern. “Also,” They continued, still speaking to Hunk but looking towards Keith with a glare. “Where did you get those pancakes?”

“Hunk and I made them this morning,” Lance says with his mouth full. 

“Chew with your mouth closed!” Hunk scolds before turning towards Pidge. “But yeah, we did. There’s some left over, so I could totally grab a plate for ya.”

“Please,” Pidge says with desperation, pushing away the bowl of food goo they had previously been snacking on. “Keith has no sense of taste.”

“It was either that or a burned kitchen,” Keith says completely deadpan.

“C’mon, man,” Lance responds. “Not even toast?” 

“No,” Keith says, still deadpan and staring straight forward. “I once burned Shiro’s stash of potato chips he was hiding from Adam when the toaster caught fire. He wouldn’t talk to me for _weeks_.”

“Man,” Hunk says, walking back into the room with pancakes that Pidge immediately starts making grabby-hands at with wide eyes and a drooling mouth. “I didn’t even know someone could be that bad at cooking,” Hunk continues before pausing briefly near the end of his sentence to hand Pidge their pancakes, “honestly. I should teach you how to make pancakes, at least.”

Lance nods in agreement as Hunk sits down.

“Yep, pancakes are a staple in every household,” Lance says.

“Adam used to make them every Sunday.”

“With an abhorred amount of chocolate chips,” Shiro adds as he walks into the dining room and sits to the right of Hunk with toast in hand.

“Rude,” Keith mumbles.

“So!” Lance yells out, throwing his hand to the right just to smack Keith in the face.

“Ouch,” Keith says, not in an actual statement of hurt but just to say ‘what the hell, man’ in not as many words. 

“Sorry,” Lance says, cringing. “But, as I was saying,” Lance quickly continues as if nothing happened. “So, how are ya feeling, Keith?”

“Fine,” Keith responds through gritted teeth.

“Oh, yeah,” Lance says, turning to Pidge with a look far too gleeful to be true, “Keith has Hypothemos.”

“Yep,” Pidge says before wolfing down more pancakes.

That statement causes Shiro and Hunk to stop their movements as if they are trying to analyze what was just said and Lance’s bizarre facade drops into a look of absolute befuddlement.

“Why did you just say that like you knew it?” Lance questions.

“Because I did,” Pidge says between bites and _Jesus_ they were not in the pod all that long, why are they eating it like they were starving in the desert for a week?

“How long?” Lance asks, eyes narrowing. 

“Dunno,” Pidge says, “Half a year or somethin’.”

“What!” Lance yells out, more shocked than actually curious.

Keith stands up. 

"I'm gonna head to my room," Keith says, already walking towards the door.

"Keith!" Shiro calls out, but is ignored.

Once at the doorway, Keith turns around with an honestly terrifying face.

"And Pidge?" Keith asks, and Pidge stops eating with a bite halfway to their mouth to look at Keith.

"They won't find your body."

Keith leaves. 

"So," Lance asks, drawing out the o and ignoring the weird conversation Pidge and Keith just had. "Do you know who Keith has Hypothemos for?"

"Yes," Pidge says, mouth twisted in a frown. "But as he implied, I would probably be dead if I told you."

"He's a dumbass," Shiro says, slowly eating his toast.

"Oh my god, you just swore," Pidge says.

"In an insult!" Lance adds. 

"Am I wrong?" Shiro questions.

Pidge's light demeanor drops.

"No, you're not."

☆☆☆

"So, mission FOWKHTF is a go."

"How did you even say that?" Pidge asks. 

"Well-" Lance says

"How about just Mission Hypothemos?" Hunk suggests. 

"Yeah, 'Find Out Who Keith has Hypothemos For' is way too long of a title," Pidge continues. 

"Why are you even here, Pidge?" Lance cries out. "You already know who Keith has Hypothemos for!"

Pidge shrugs.

"Yeah, I just want to see how miserably you fail."

"Asshole," Lance mumbles. "Anyways," Lance continues, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. "Let's list what we know about Hypothemos first."

"Well, it makes Keith cold, obviously," Shiro finally says. He isn't exactly supportive of the mission, but he knows that it's important.

"Until the one he loves touches him." Lance adds, scribbling onto the data pad. 

"And depending on that touch it'll make him warmer for longer," Hunk adds, and Lance nods as he continues to scribble. 

"It makes him immune to temperatures," Pidge adds, and Lance looks at them. "What?" They ask. "I'm not allowed to say anything about _who_ he has it for, but I can say shit _about_ Hypothemos."

Lance shrugs and then scribbles it down. 

Everyone is silent for a moment before Lance's eyes light up. 

"Oh my God, I totally just figured out how to get this mission on its feet!"

Everyone looks towards Lance in confusion.

"The person he loves can't notice his current temperature. Everyone else that touches him will feel his current body temperature, but the one he loves will feel his average temperature before Hypothemos."

Pidge's eyes widen.

"Oh God, you're really gonna figure this out?"

Lance nods.

"Yep, a hundred percent. So now everyone just needs to touch him and whoever doesn't feel like Keith is an icicle is who he's in love with."

"Lance," Shiro says, narrowing his eyes. "You realize that direct rejection will cause the healing abilities in hypothemos to stop, correct?"

Well that explains why he's against the plan. He's probably in the same mindset of Pidge, more or less. 

Lance nods. 

"Yeah. But he never has to know if we do it subtley enough."

"Sorry bud," Hunk says, "But I'm a bad liar and very straight. I don't think I should participate."

"Keith is essentially a brother to me," Shiro says, "So I can only pray he doesn't have it for me, but I suppose I can attempt to participate."

"There's one!" Lance yells out. "Pidge?" He asks, turning towards them.

"How I found out he had hypothemos was because he was an icicle. It is not me," Pidge says in response with a raised eyebrow. 

Lance narrows his eyes. 

"Is that also how you figured out who he had Hypothemos for?"

Pidge hesitantly nods.

"Why don't you just tell me," Lance says, "We're gonna figure it out anyways."

"What if it's someone on Earth?" Hunk hesitantly asks.

"A.," Lance says, listing things off. "Pidge wouldn't have figured out who it was if they were on Earth. B., Keith would probably be dead by now, and C., since we didn't notice it horribly soon I assume it started way earlier into this mess, but not _that_ early."

Hunk stays frozen for a moment before stiffly nodding. 

"What if it's someone in the coalition?" Shiro asks. 

"This is plan A," Lance says. "If this doesn't work, we'll move onto members of the coalition."

"And what about Hunk?" Shiro asks, and Lance hesitates. 

"Shit," Lance says. "This isn't going to work."

Lance leans down onto the table and grabs at his hair. 

"Fuuuuuck."

"Uh," Pidge says, "Why do you even care so much?"

"He's a member of our team!" Lance immediately responds. "If we can figure out who he's in love with, he can be happy with them!"

"Unless they don't like his gender or, just, y'know, don't like him that way," Pidge says in response, pointing to Hunk and Shiro respectively. 

"Oh jeez," Hunk suddenly says. "What if his crush has a crush on someone else?"

"If he knew about it," Lance says, "He'd probably be dead. Rejection makes Hypothemos worse," Lance continues, scribbling it onto the data pad, determination coming back. 

"That knocks you off the list, then," Shiro says. "You've been very open about your crush on Allura."

Lance nods, and writes something down on his data pad before projecting it onto the screen.

"So," Lance says, "Here's everything I have so far. The symptoms of Hypothemos," He says as he circles the text with the pen, "And who he could possibly be in love with. I wrote the other six people on the castleship first, then we can get into the members of the coalition."

"So you and I are marked off?" Pidge asks, and Lance can tell something's off about them. They seem… relieved. Lance files that away in his brain for later. 

"Yep, because it's obviously not me due to my crush on Allura, and you know who it is and would've probably outright rejected him without knowing the consequences."

Pidge looks towards him, offended.

"You don't seem like the romantic type," Lance says, shrugging

Pidge is starting to understand what Keith said about the 'people-smart' thing. 

Pidge shrugs. 

"Pidge?" Lance questions, and Pidge can tell it's for a different strain of conversation.

"What?" They ask.

"Do you want us to find out who Keith has Hypothemos for?" He asks.

Jesus Christ.

 _'Definitely people-smart,'_ Pidge thinks with a bit of sass towards themself.

"Not really," They say.

"Why?" Lance asks. "Don't you want him to be happy?"

"I feel like the whole reason everyone found out is my fault."

"We would've found out eventually," Shiro says.

"Probably not, actually," Pidge says. "Keith is deceivingly good at lying."

"Oh my god!" Hunk suddenly cries out, interrupting conversation. "That's why he wouldn't let me take his temperature at that diplomatic mission a few months ago! He knew that I would feel how cold he was!"

Lance crosses off Hunk's name. 

"Well that's another off the list."

"Lance," Shiro suddenly says, looking at the list. "You're a very touchy person. Is it possible that you could counteract your talk about Allura?"

Pidge minutely flinches. Lance notices it but doesn't know what to make of it, so he files that away for later, too. 

"Possibly," Lance says, nodding while removing the 'x' over his name. 

"Wait," Pidge suddenly says, " _Coran_ is on there?"

Hunk fake-retches. 

"You never know!" Lance cries out. "He could be into older dudes!"

Shiro snorts. 

"And six-year-olds," Pidge says, subtley looking over to Shiro.

"I resent that," Shiro says, immediately recognizing the jab. 

Lance stiffles his giggles. 

"But," Lance suddenly says, serious demeanor appearing suddenly, "I think Pidge actually has a point."

Pidge freezes. 

"What?" They squeak out.

"Don't worry," Lance says, "It just started a train of thought, so Keith shouldn't murder you for it. Anyways," he continues, "Logically, Keith wouldn't be into Shiro or Coran, Coran due to age, and Shiro due to the amount of time they have known each other."

Shiro freezes. 

"What?" Shiro questions. 

"You've known eachother since Keith was fifteen or so, right?"

"Yeah," Shiro says, raising an eyebrow.

"So it's not exactly out of the question," Lance says, crossing off Shiro's and Coran's names, "But typically if you fall in love with a childhood friend you're actually, you know, a teen. If you already met each other while in the teen years, then typically a confession comes within the first few years."

"Keith did say he actually used to have a pseudo-crush on me," Shiro says, "I was actually how he figured out he was gay, but-"

"Keith's gay?" Lance asks, and Shiro looks towards the board and sees Allura's name. 

"Yeah, Keith's gay," Shiro responds, and Lance crosses out Allura's name. "But after he admitted the pseudo-crush, he said it was just a celebrity type, and now that we had met, he didn't see me in that way anymore."

Shiro furrows his eyebrows.

"Actually, now that I think about it, I think he called me his brother before I left for Kerberos."

Lance scribbles Shiro's name out so it's barely visible. 

"Definitely not Shiro, then," Lance says, and looks at who remains. 

Lance stands there for a moment, trying to find the words to say as his mouth moves like a fish's that's out of water. 

"Okay," Lance says, and the words slightly strained.

"It could still be someone in the coalition," Hunk says.

"That's really unlikely," Lance says. "The times we meet with specific members of the coalition are so few and far between, Keith would probably have frozen over by now."

"It could be someone from the blades or rebels," Shiro says. "We meet with them more often than the other members."

Lance nods before gasping in a breath of air and writing down another name.

"Matt?" Pidge asks, scrunching their nose up. "Ew. I see Keith as a pseudo brother and him being with my real brother is… ugh."

"It's still possible," Lance says. 

"Though," Hunk says. "Since we eliminated everyone but you, maybe you should go through plan A and we can go on from there."

Lance nods, leaning off the table.

"Are you sure you can even lie to him afterward?" Pidge asks.

Lance looks over at them with wide eyes. 

"That was supposed to be a jab at your horrible lying skills."

"I'll let you know I'm a great liar!" Lance says crossing his arms. "You don't grow up in a household with _four_ siblings without the ability to lie."

Pidge blinks.

"Okay, then," Pidge says. "Whatever you say."

Lance huffs out a breath with a pout before turning back to Hunk and Shiro.

"So we're going through plan A first?"

"Yep," Hunk says, nodding.

"Though I highly doubt it's me," Lance says, rolling his eyes. "I know I'm amazing and everything, but I don't really seem like Keith's type. Matt, however," Lance says, putting emphasis on 'Matt', "Is a different story. I think they would make a great couple."

Pidge fake retches.

☆☆☆

"Keith," Pidge says, slamming his door open. Or the equivalent of it for sliding doors. "My room, stat," They continue, before stalking off.

"The fuck?" Keith asks no one, before getting up from his bed and following after them.

"What's this about?" Keith asks.

"There's a reason we're going to my room and not having this conversation at yours," Pidge says, and Keith snaps his jaw closed.

Once they reach the room, Pidge activates the white noise machine and gets straight to the point. 

"You are going to be found out very soon," They say, sitting down in their chair and pointing their hands toward Keith in a praying position. 

"How do you know that?" Keith asks, sitting down on the bed. 

"Well," Pidge says, putting their hands down and fiddling with their jacket… shirt… thing. "You were right about Lance. He knows a shit ton about Hypothemos."

"Okay?" Keith asks, swallowing hard.

"And he also is pretty damn decent at making a good plan."

Keith stays silent, but Pidge can tell that internally he's freaking out. He's not doing much to hide it, but Pidge can tell his goal is to tone it down, not straight-out dismiss it.

"And he used the process of elimination and he narrowed it down to himself. And Matt, technically, but plan A only applies to Lance since you're in the relative vicinity of him."

"And how will he figure this out?" Keith asks. 

"He's gonna touch you, since those with Hypothemos are their actual body temperature to everyone except for the one they're in love with. For the one they're in love with, it'll show as their average before Hypothemos."

Keith blinks.

"Well that explains a lot," Keith says,

"What?" Pidge asks. _'I just told him he's gonna be found out and his response is "that explains a lot"-'_

"Well," He says, "Remember how that one time I got so cold I started to radiate it?"

Pidge gasps in realization. 

"He didn't notice how cold you were," They say, and, well, they're just… nervous about saying Lance's name and Hypothemos in the same sentence. They know that Keith's doom or whatever is imminent, but it doesn't mean Pidge isn't going to try to hide it as long as possible.

"But, yeah," Keith says, bringing Pidge back to the conversation. "It seems like they're gonna find me out," He continues, before stopping to think.

"I've got it," Keith says. "How will he know if I'm warm because he is who I am in love with or if who I am in love with recently touched me?"

"Because he'll probably ask whoever is nearby to touch you as well."

"And what if you're nearby me?" Keith asks. 

Pidge's eyes widen. 

"Then I can lie and Lance will never know."

Keith suddenly deflates.

"But Lance is a human lie detector. I've got a fifty-fifty shot if he will believe my lies, and your odds are probably lower."

Pidge bites their lip, now tapping on their leg.

"Doesn't mean I can't try?" Pidge asks more than says. 

"Have you successfully lied to him before?" Keith asks.

"Uh," Pidge says, "Maybe? I mean, while I don't believe you whatsoever, Lance apparently is a good liar, and if he is a good liar, he could know that I was lying, but wasn't worried enough to drag the truth out of me, so he just lied to avoid conflict."

"So he didn't want you to know that he knew that you lied so he lied to save your pride or whatever?"

"Jesus, this dialogue is really confusing," Pidge says.

"Dialog-?" Keith questions.

"But yeah," Pidge says, "Basically."

"This is a really risky situation and I don't like our odds," Keith says, "But I don't think we have any other choice."

"I mean you could avoid him?" Pidge asks, and Keith just stares at them.

"Oh!" Pidge suddenly blurts out. "Shit, you'd freeze to death. Forgot about that."

"Not like that's what we're talking about or anything," Keith sarcastically says. 

"I'm tired, okay?" Pidge says. "I got out of a healing pod like, six hours ago and still haven't slept."

Keith sucks in a breath. 

"Shit, you're not gonna be able to lie at all."

Silence fills the room.

"I'm not gonna be able to lie," Pidge reiterates. 

"Why does he even want to know so bad?" Keith asks. "So that he can immediately reject me?" Keith asks, and he instantly feels himself become colder. It's not direct rejection, since it's not coming from Lance itself, but… it still isn't great to think of rejection with Hypothemos. 

"He wants you to be happy," Pidge says. "And he figures he could lie his way through afterward- shit," Pidge continues before suddenly stopping. "I shouldn't have told you this."

Keith's heart drops through his feet.

"So now, if he doesn't talk to me afterwards," Keith says, "It'll be almost as close of a subjective rejection to a direct rejection and would almost instantaneously kill me."

Pidge covers their mouth. 

"Fuck," They say, but it's muffled through their hand. "I might've killed you by telling you this."

Keith immediately puts his hands on Pidge's shoulders and they shiver.

"It will not be your fault, Pidge," Keith says. "Rejection was inevitable regardless. I would have gotten suspicious if nothing happened after they found out about my Hypothemos and eventually would've found out anyways."

"But I'm the reason they know in the first place-"

"No," Keith says. "The Galra are, for using that gas. You couldn't have known that the room would fill with gas, you couldn't have known there was a random wire there that you tripped over since it was relatively - or very - dark. If it's anyone's fault, it's the Galra, Pidge. Not you."

Pidge wipes away a few tears and sniffles.

"I don't want you to die," Pidge says in a watery voice, and Keith wraps his arms around them.

Pidge doesn't mind how cold he is.

☆☆☆

"Keith!" Lance calls out.

_Fuck._

"Can I help you with those?" Lance continues, pointing towards the two crates in Keith's hands. 

They're on a diplomatic mission currently, and are moving supplies from one warehouse for another, since unfortunately the Galran Empire decimated the town that used the supplies in the first place. The three that are right here, two in Keith's arms and one in Pidge's, are the last of them.

"Um," Keith says, and thinks about his options. Lance will get suspicious if he refuses, since he's obviously struggling-

Wait.

He's _Keith_.

"I've got it," Keith says, and starts moving towards the nearest lion.

"Are you sure?" Lance presses. "It looks rather precarious."

"I'm fine," Keith grits out. 

Lance lets out a huff of breath. 

"I'm Keith and I'm the lone wolf that does everything by myself, blah blah blah," Lance says in a mimic voice. 

Keith sets down the crates. 

"Excuse me, but Pidge is right here-"

Lance looks over to Pidge, and Keith realizes that that was the wrong thing to say. 

"You're right," Lance says, and goes forward and pats Keith's shoulder before he can react. 

Keith can see Lance's pupils dilate a tad as he grabs one of the crates, but he doesn't react otherwise. 

"Well, I took one," Lance says, "So too bad," He continues, and walks up the Red Lion's ramp. 

"Shit," Keith says once he's out of earshot. 

"Well, he didn't react much-," Pidge says.

"I saw the shock in his eyes, his pupils dilated. He definitely knew that was a normal body temperature."

Pidge bites their lip and bumps their should against Keith when Lance re-emerges from the lion, and Keith picks up the remaining crate. 

Keith can see the slight smile he shot towards Pidge. 

"What's taking so long, slow pokes?" Lance asks. "We don't have all quintant or whatever."

Keith walks up the Red Lion's ramp, Pidge right behind.

"So?" Keith hears Lance ask from another room in the lion.

"I touched him before and after," Pidge says, "Body temperature was the same."

Keith can practically see Lance narrowing his eyes. 

"And how can I trust you?"

"When evidence is literally right in front of me, why would I lie? He only threatened me if I just outright said who it was, and this wasn't the case."

The rest of the ride is silent and Keith can only pray that Pidge's lie went through.

☆☆☆

One thing that Keith notes is that the conversation occurred in a position where Keith couldn't see Lance.

When you love someone, you notice their tells, and he certainly would've noticed Lance's. 

The vocal tells are the hardest to track, and that is something Keith isn't good at.

He could've believed Pidge's lie, he could've seen through them.

Keith doesn't know, and for once, he's happy for a lack of information.

☆☆☆

Unfortunately, Keith realizes, when they talk with Matt a day later, Lance doesn't say anything suspicious.

He prays that it's due to a lack of plan.

_"I got out of a healing pod, like, six hours ago…"_

_~~But then why is it taking so long?~~ _

☆☆☆

Keith gets nervous a few weeks later.

He feels like Lance has been touching him more. Is that just him being hyper-aware?

~~He hopes so.~~

☆☆☆

"Keith?" Keith hears outside his door one evening after dinner.

"Come in," He says, and the door opens. 

"It's dark as Hell in here," Lance says once he steps into the room. "Ever heard of a nightlight?"

Keith rolls his eyes, but he's not sure if Lance could see it or not before the door closed.

"What do you want?" Keith asks, straight to the point.

Lance takes a moment to collect his words.

"You have Hypothemos for me, don't you?" Lance asks, and it's for confirmation only, but Keith knows that Lance believes he's right.

_Shit._

Keith lets out a humorless laugh.

"There's no avoiding it now, is there?" He asks. 

Wait.

Keith thinks for a moment.

Lance knows he can die if he gets rejected, so why…

"No," Lance says, "There isn't."

"You realize that rejection causes death, right?" Keith asks.

"Of course," Lance says, incredulous. 

Keith lets out a sigh.

"So why are you here?"

Keith can hear Lance swallow.

"Because I like you, too."

Keith sits ramrod straight.

"What?" Keith asks, voice strained.

"I like you back, okay?" Lance asks throwing his arms in the air. "Welcome to one of my best kept secrets."

"And Pidge says you're a bad liar," Keith says in a joking tone, but he's serious.

"What?" Lance squawks out. "How dare they!"

"But," Keith says, turning more serious again. "You like me?" He asks, "Seriously?"

"Yeah," Lance says, voice soft, and Keith can see the blush on his face. "And more," He tacks on, "But I don't quite feel comfortable saying it yet."

"That's okay," Keith says, grabbing Lance's wrist and dragging him onto his bed. "That's more than okay," Keith continues, and hugs Lance to his chest.

For once, Keith isn't cold. 

And for once, he thinks it has nothing to do with Lance touching him (at least, in a Hypothemos sense).

☆☆☆

"Lance!" Hunk yells out, confronting Lance in a random hallway. He doubles over to catch his breath (how long had he been running?) before continuing. "Buddy! You never told us how plan A went."

"Uh," Lance says and… oh yeah. That's a thing.

"I mean," Hunk continues. "I assume we need to go to plan B, but why didn't you call another meeting-" Hunk lets out a huge gasp. "You didn't proceed with plan B without us, did you?"

Lance sits there for a moment, blinking. 

"Lance," Lance hears from the edge of the hallway, and he turns to see Keith. 

Keith glances at Hunk, then Lance, and attempts to assess the situation.

He doesn't have a clue. 

"Uh," Keith says, "What's going on here?"

"Nothing!" Hunk squeaks out.

Keith gives him a deadpan look. 

"Is this about that stupid mission?"

"What mission?" Hunk asks, voice still high pitched.

"Y'know," Keith responds, "The one to figure out who I had Hypothemos for."

Hunk blinks for a moment.

"Had?"

Keith blinks back at him and glances towards Lance.

"So, uh," Lance says, "Plan A kinda worked."

Hunk's jaw drops the floor. 

"What?!"

"Yep," Keith says, walking up next to Lance. 

Lance takes Keith's hand into his grip and Keith tries, and fails, to hide his giddy smile.

"Oh my god," Hunk excitedly says, "Congrats!"

Keith blushes.

Oh right, that's a thing he can do now.

Hunk stops for a moment and glance between the two.

"Wait," Hunk says, "Doesn't the disease only go away with requited _love_?"

Lance blushes and lets go of Keith's hand to have an embarrassed freak-out.

"Hunk!" Lance squeaks out as he covers his face with his hands. 

"It's kinda something we know," Keith says, "But haven't exactly voiced aloud."

"Oh," Hunk says nodding, before turning to Lance, who is already calming down. "How long have you been hiding this from me?" Hunk asks Lance.

"Uh," Lance says, and his clueless expression tells Hunk to explain further.

"I mean how long have you liked Keith?" Hunk clarifies.

"Before I say this, I'd like it put on record that why I didn't tell you is because you're horrible at keeping secrets."

"That's fair," Hunk says, nodding.

"So," Lance says, grabbing Keith's hand. Lance rubs his free hand against the nape of his neck, and Keith squeezes his hand for extra confidence. "I kinda had a crush on him while he was still at the Garrison," Lance says, some red blooming upon his cheeks.

"What?" Keith and Hunk ask simultaneously, Keith dropping Lance's hand.

"That's not fair," Lance says, referring to Keith's reaction. "You said that you first noticed symptoms of Hypothemos after Sendak attacked the castle."

Hunk glances between the two with wide eyes.

"How long has this been in the making?" Hunk rhetorically asks. 

"Who knows," Keith answers, despite the fact that the question wasn't intended to be answered. 

"I'm just glad it happened," Lance tacks on.

"I'm very glad to not be freezing cold all the time."

Hunk's eyes slowly widen.

"Oh my god," Hunk says, "Keith, dude, you had hypothemos when we went on the mission for the fridaberries!"

"Yeah?" Keith asks more than says.

"We probably would've died without you, dude!" Hunk yells out. 

"Oh," Keith says. 

"And Pidge would've died too, in the gas room," Lance says. 

"Is it weird to say I'm sad Keith doesn't have Hypothemos anymore?" Hunk asks.

"Nope," Keith says. "It definitely saved our asses a few times."

"Well," Hunk says. "Since apparently Keith doesn't have Hypothemos anymore…" He continues, trailing off. "I'm gonna make celebratory cupcakes!"

"Yes!" Lance says with a smile, pumping his fist in the air. 

"Uh," Keith asks, "Can you make them with fridaberries?"

Hunk laughs a bit. 

"Why wouldn't I? It, in a way, represents what we're celebrating." 

"Wait," Lance says, very confused, "When did we get the fridaberries?" 

"Keith grabbed some on the way back to the castle, believe it or not."

"Stumbled across them nearly ten feet off of the cave," Keith adds on. "I just quickly grabbed a handful and put them in my suit pocket. I gave them to Pidge later, and they did some bioengineering or whatever to let them grow on the castle."

"So I was dying and you took a second to grab some berries?" Lance asks, raising a single unimpressed eyebrow. 

Keith blushes a bit. 

"You said how your favorite birthday cake was on your tenth birthday, and it had strawberry frosting."

"When did I even say that?" Lance mumbles.

"I knew that literally _one second_ wasn't gonna kill you, and I figured you would be pissed if we didn't get them, so I grabbed them quickly. Though it didn't really matter, since apparently you forgot that we ever were going to get them."

"Oh," Lance says, "I'm very happy about this, okay? Honestly I don't mind if I lost, like, a single brain cell for some actually good food."

Keith lets out a brief laugh. 

"Good to know my efforts weren't wasted."

"Do you wanna help me bake?" Hunk asks, glancing between Keith and Lance.

"Do I?" Lance yells out in response, grabbing Keith's hand and immediately dragging him towards the kitchen, Hunk not far behind.

Keith's soft laughter echoed throughout the hallways.

☆☆☆

_"We make a good team," Lance says, broken and battered, giving a soft smile to Keith._

_Keith smiles back, and he feels so warm._

_When Lance comes out of the pod later, and says "Nope, don't remember, didn't happen," Keith feels like a desert at night._

_Is being close to him so bad?_

_Because Lance is one of the kindest boys Keith has met, so why is he so cruel to him?_

_~~Lance later tells him it was denial.~~ _

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed, and, again, happy Valentine's Day! 
> 
> Feel free to use this idea in a fic of your own, and if you do, let me know you did so! Even if I don't actually ship the ship I would love to see your twist on it <3
> 
> I'm... kind of thinking of doing this in Lance's POV, especially because he wasn't that active of a character here, but it's, like, 25% chance. I have other stuff to work on, lol. 
> 
> In previous works I have said I don't respond to comments, however I have gained a lot of confidence, so I MIGHT respond. No guarantees, but it's a far better chance than in previous fics.


End file.
